After repeated - and ignored - complaints about the water leak in Wrottesley Road - just by the junction with Odessa Road, it seems that the road has collapsed after today's heavy rain and the drills are out with a vengeance. Interesting to see if they cure the problem!

A really good job well done by our pavement workers who over a period of weeks, if not months, have transformed the look of Odessa Road. There were two unanswered questions - what about Palermo Road and isn't the sand around the trees going to be washed away? They haven't answered the first question but look - here is work in progress and smart sealed but porous surrounds for the trees. Very smart indeed!

Attendance: 20 residents.Apologies: Cllr Claudia Hector, Cllr Dan Filson, Carol Allen, Safer Neighbourhoods TeamIntroductionsand welcome to new members.Mattersarising from previous meeting will be dealt with in the relevant sections.Zebra Crossing- Wrottesley Road roundabout/Palermo Road. We raised this issue with Brent and received reply from John Dryden, senior traffic engineer, saying that there hadn’t been any recorded personal injuries involving pedestrians in the last 3 years and that there was limited funding for new road safety measures but they would keep it under review. Residents raised more worries about the general traffic flow at the Wrottesley roundabout as well as the bicycles coming out of Palermo Road which for cars is No exit.Action: Contact Highways again and/or invite them to one of our meetings-Visitor parking- This matter has been raised with Brent directly or via the Councillors but without success. Many residents were incensed with this issue and the endless difficulties they face. One resident spoke about how his mother who panics and rings him at work to sort it out. But the problems are not only for people without computers or who might have difficulties with dealing with the system. Other difficulties include getting permits for people working in your house if you are not in the country, etc.Action: Contact again the Councillors and Brent Council/Head of Transport. Please let us know any problems you experience so that we give them real examples.Safer Neighbourhoods Team and security concerns – We went to the SNT meeting in January but didn’t find it useful as the PC who attended was new and did not come prepared for the meeting. SNT can come to your house to give you advice on how to improve security. If you want to mark your property with SMART WATER you now have to pay for it. Dispersal orders in Harlesden, Wendover Road and Rucklidge Avenue, have been renewed. Many residents raised security concerns. These are some examples: -There were 2 house break ins in Palermo Road in broad daylight. Police were contacted, but both residents felt that the advice they got was very poor and there was no follow up. In one case they have a CCTV camera, but they didn’t look at it. -A resident was attacked coming home at night. The attacker was hidden in a disused phone box on the corner of Bathurst Gardens and Wrottesley Road roundabout. - -A resident who often comes home late night/early morning reported seeing regularly cars parked near the corner of Furness Road with Harlesden High Street -using/ dealing drugs, mainly on Friday and Saturday nights. Need for police presence. -Convenience shop in the vicinity of Harrow Road / Wrottesley Road - hotspot for drinks and drugs.Action: Send report of residents’ concerns to the SNT, with copy to councillors, circulate SNT/police phone numbers for residents to use and ask residents to report any concerns they have, ask Brent Council/BT to remove disused phone box. Rubbish bin collections – when Veolia collects the rubbish they often leave the bins in the wrong place and leave litter on the road. Action: monitor and if it continues, report it to Brent and copy to Cllr Claudia Hector (concerns about performance of Veolia Potholes/pavements in Odessa Road- Since our last meeting we continuously reported the state of Odessa Road to Brent Council with photos attached. It needed a lot of chasing but eventually they repaired the bigger potholes and told us that we are on the list to be surveyed this year and possibly repaired. In the meantime we received an email saying that our pavements were going to be redone. We were surprised because we had not mentioned it and when we queried it, we were told that it was our turn and some sections of the pavement were in poor state particularly around the trees. We believe also that the Council might have had some money left from last year and chose a small street that was on the list to be done.Kensal Green Streets – the coordinator of KGS, Nathalie Monnot gave a brief report of last year’s activities: Clean up Days, Green Big Lunch, Furness Pocket Park Mosaic project. We have now planned a picnic in Furness Pocket Park on 13 July from 1-4pm. We have also applied for money to renew the benches in front of the park but do not know the outcome yet.Others- 1) there has been a water leak on Wrottesley Road in front of Odessa Road, which we reported some time ago, but nothing has been done yet and there is a pothole now which is getting worse. Will continue chasing. 2) There is a Public Health risk, rats, resulting from the state of the area (disused yard?) between Furness Pocket park and shops. Will try to investigate. 3) Need to report dead trees to Brent. 4) Concern about rubbish spilling on to Palermo Road from Furness Road Schools rubbish bins. Monitor and if needed follow up with the Headmistress Sylvie Lipson.Next meeting – 14 OctoberUseful contacts: Odessapalermoblog.org Kensalgreenstreets.blogspot.com SNT Kensal Green 02087212055 (the Sgt is Simon Carver and the dedicated ward officer is Paul Riley) Bulk Waste: 5 items per year free of charge. Ring Brent at 02089375050 or contact www.freecycle.org